Astroblog: Thursday August 24 to Thursday August 31

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Thursday August 24 to Thursday August 31

The Full Moon is Thursday, August 31. This is both a "blue" Moon and a perigee syszgy ("super') Moon. Three of the bright classical planets, (Mercury, Mars and Saturn) are visible when the sky is fully dark. Saturn is now rising around 6:00 pm local time, and is at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest as seen from earth, on the 28th. Mercury is still prominent in the late twilight but is now heading towards the horizon. Jupiter is prominent in the morning sky making a triangle with the Pleiades and Hyades.

The Full Moon is Thursday, August 31. This is both a "blue" Moon (the second full Moon of the month) and a perigee syszgy ("super') Moon, the best this year.

Evening sky on Wednesday, August 30 as seen from Adelaide at 20:00 ACST, Saturn is above the eastern horizon, close to the Moon. The inset is the telescopic view of Saturn at this time.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time.

Morning sky on Saturday, August 26 as seen from Adelaide at 05:27 ACST, (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Jupiter is above the horizon near the Hyades and Pleiades. The inset is the telescopic view of Jupiter at this time.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise).

Evening sky on Saturday, August 26 as seen from Adelaide at 18:47 ACST, 60 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Mercury is below Mars and is the brighter of the pair.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset).

Evening sky on Thursday, August 31 as seen from Adelaide at 19:17 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). The Full Moon is just above the horizon, official full moon was at 12:00pam on and Perigee at 2:00 am. This is the best Perigee Moon of the year.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset).

Whole sky on Saturday, August 26 as seen from Adelaide at 19:17 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Mars is visible low above the north western horizon close to Mercury. Saturn is just rising in the east.

Scorpius and Sagittarius are readily visible near the zenith.

Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are another wealth of binocular objects to discover.The waxing Moon will make the fainter objects hard to see though.

Elsewhere in Australia will see a similar view at the equivalent time (90 minutes after sunset).

Mercury Mercury is still prominent in the late twilight but is now heading towards the horizon.

Venus is lost in the twilight.

Mars is dimming, and is above Mercury.

Jupiter is prominent in the morning sky.

Saturn is now rising around 6:00 pm local time, and is at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest as seen from earth, on the 28th.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/

Labels: weekly sky